My Beauty Best Teacher

Over dinner tonight the discussion turned to politics, particularly health care. I made the bold statement of saying that I opposed Obama's health care plan, and several people at our little dinner party started to attack me. "Don't you care about people?" they asked. "Do you suggest doing nothing?" they wondered. "Bush did whatever he wanted when he was President, now it's our turn," they justified.

My argument was simple, although shocking and revolutionary. I think that government should work hardest on protecting very important things, the most important of which are people's ability to live (and live as long as they can), the ability to choose for themselves, and the idea of keeping and earning stuff. And that above all, above providing health care or fighting global warming or running automobile companies, government should not attack these important things and try to take them away. And Obama's health care plan does this.

Obama's health care plan attacks life, by subsidizing abortion clinics at birth, by denying care and treatment (through rationing and bureaucratic delays) during life, and by denying care and treatment (through 'consoling and discussion') at the twilight of life.

Obama's heath care plan attacks choice, by replacing the patient-doctor relationship with one of patient-bureaucrat-doctor, where if you choose a procedure or drug, a government employee can tell you no. It removes responsibility to work hard and insure your own self, and gives up your freedom and liberty to government run and regulated faceless bureaucrats.

Obama's health care plan attacks property, because in order to pay for it, he needs to raise money. That money is either borrowed, which lessens the worth of all other money in the system, including mine, or the money is raised, by taking it from me. I worked for whatever money I earn- if the government did not exist, I would still work for whatever money I earn and it would be mine- therefor the government is not the creator of money nor the lawful taker of it. Obama's heath care plan will take my property in the form of higher taxes, fees, or borrowed funds.

My argument to my friends was simple- that all men are created equal, that we all have certain rights, that some of the most important of these rights is life, liberty, and property, and that the purpose of government is to protect these rights. And that whenever government becomes destructive to these rights by taking them away, that government is a tyranny, and all good patriots must oppose it with all their manly strength.

My friends, sadly, did not agree with my arguments- they sided with King George instead.

Pat Utomi writes:

Recently I advocated that if we are really serious at making our political office holders more sensitive to the people we have to enact laws that make it MANDATORY for ALL political office holders to receive medical services ONLY in Nigerian hospitals and for their children to attend ONLY Nigerian schools. I argued that the reason they do not care about the decay in Nigeria’s infrastructure and social services is because they do not access them and how can you advocate for something you do not use. Imagine my surprise when I received emails from a few Nigerians complaining that my idea was unconstitutional and will affect people’s liberty. To those who said that, I ask what they understand by the term government. Isn’t government meant to guarantee the welfare of the poeple?

One of the problems with the current Democratic proposal for healthcare reform is the process. I know liberals believe that the ends justify the means, and they are willing to do anything to make America have a government-run healthcare system, but some of the means that Democrats are engaging in are the sort of dirty and disgusting stuff that should cause voters to throw them out of office next election.

One such dirty and disgusting tactic that Democrats are engaging in is hiring interns in their county offices to write letters to lawmakers pretending to be distressed individuals who are unable to get healthcare under the current system.

These interns write letters and emails pretending to be people who are very poor, have a severe disability, are faced with extreme situations, or otherwise have really bad problems, and urge lawmakers to vote to pass the healthcare reform that Democrats are proposing based on this evidence. The interns are not these things- they are instead being paid to lie to lawmakers by Democrats. This type of tactic is insulting on many levels, but is happening all over the nation now, being employed openly by Democrats to win the healthcare debate.

This disgusting Democrat tactic was easily discovered by Republican lawmakers. Whenever they received these letters and emails, they would try to contact the sender to let them know that our government already provides extensive healthcare coverage that almost certainly covered their problems. You see, we already have government provided healthcare to a large segment of our population, paid for by taxpayer dollars from you and me. And Republican lawmakers care, so when they track down the senders of these sad letters to tell them that they are already covered, they discover that the senders are not sad individuals at all, but paid Democratic interns.

Commissioner Shelley Taub exposed this tactic at a recent county commissioner meeting, which I covered in a blog post here. Although she exposed just a single example, the person she discovered who wrote a sad letter to her had as a full time job sending out letters such as these, and so although she exposed just one example of Democratic slime, a good amount of it is now flowing in the system (and it's the bad slime, like in Ghostbusters II).

You can contact Taub to obtain the evidence yourself by going to her page here- at the meeting she read us the evidence and and told us the full story of how she spent her weekend trying to track down the poor unwed mother who was on death's door in order to put her in touch with government help, only to discover that it was deception perpetrated by the Democratic party.

When Taub exposed this local piece of fraud, she was told that it was only "an overzealous individual from the county party’s office stepped outside of the realm of acceptable conduct and encouraged county party interns to follow suit," and that this person was "officially reprimanded them for their unacceptable actions." The email Taub received closed by encouraging Taub to ignore "these distractions"- the phony emails and letters that are flooding the system lying about the situation and encouraging public officials to vote a certain way based on deception and lies- because "there is a very real need... for improved health care coverage." The ends justify the means, in other words, and Democrats are sorry they were caught this time, but they will strike again.

Life, liberty, and property are being taken from us by deception and lies. Don't vote for this party, whether they be blue, black, or green.

UPDATE: If you would like to email someone your disgust with this, Mike McGuinness, Chairman of the Oakland County Democratic Party, was the guy who ran this shop of deception and lies. His email address is chair@ocdp.org.

UPDATE II: Looks like I am generating the news cycle again. Today in the Oakland Press there is a story about this very issue- Commissioner: Dems sent falsified letters. The author of this story must be a reader on my blog. Check it out!

UPDATE III: This story has some legs- big blogs around the country are picking it up and running with it, including the very good blog Atlas Shrugs. Here is their thoughts on this story.

The beginner in oil painting does not need lots of oil painting materials or to spend lots of money. In fact, great oil paintings can be completed by the use of a minimal amount and cheap oil painting equipment. All that is required is careful preparation and shrewd shopping.


Art Equipment for Oil Painting

Many artists use numerous oil painting tubes, which is fine, but the beginner can obtain any colour by merely three primary colours and white. Additional colours will come in handy if the artist does not wish to keep mixing colours to obtain a particular blue or red. Earth colours are also great for adding atmosphere and for monochromatic painting.

Primary Colours

The true primary colours are not any red, yellow and blue, but are the colours found in printing ink, which are magenta, cyan and yellow. The true primary colours do not exist in pigment, for a little impurity will always exist, but a close approximation can be achieved. Personally, I have found permanent rose, pthalo blue and cadmium yellow (pale) to be close to the mark, and include them within my painting palette.

Cheap Oil Paints

Briefly, oil paint is graded into two types: artist quality and student quality. The artist quality include organic pigments, which make them more costly. Personally, I have found student quality to be perfectly suited to any oil painting and I have used them extensively. However, I always stick to a recommended brand such as Winsor & Newton or Daler Rowney.

Recommended Oil Painting Pigments

I use the following pigments for my paintings without the need for lots of other pigments:

• A large tube of titanium white
• Permanent rose
• Cadmium red
• Pthalo blue
• Ultramarine
• Cadmium yellow (pale)
• Lemon yellow
• Viridian green
• Burnt sienna
• Burnt umber

click to buy from Amazon

• Advice on oil painting brushes
• Advice on buying oil paints
• Types of gessoes for oil painting
• Advice on buying easels
• Advice on oil painting mediums
• Oil painting materials shop
• Books on oil painting

This is how the Democrats tell the story.

After George W Bush won election in 2000, the Democrats pointed over and over again to his low polling numbers, claiming that this was evidence that the country was divided. Byron York, writing in the National Review, characterized his approval rating as "wandering listlessly in the low 50 percent range." Democrats viewed these low approval ratings as a weakness, a sign that the President was unpopular and did not have a mandate to lead. Indeed, throughout his whole Presidency and in elections after they were able to point to those approval ratings numbers as evidence that Bush was never a legitimate President.

Bush's approval rating sunk from a high of 62% soon after he was elected to a meager 53% only months after he was elected. It was a sign of how unpopular he was.

Obama's approval rating has sunk from a high of 63% soon after he was elected to a meager 53% only months after he was elected. It is a sign of how unpopular he is.

Will Democrats tell this story? Or will they continue to portray Obama as a God in the media? I suspect that they will continue to insist that Obama is popular, even if his approval numbers drop to Jimmy Carter or Nancy Pelosi levels. When you have a minority group (extreme liberal Democrats are a minority group) ruling a nation, it usually is unpopular, and yet these groups typically prop up their regime with shows and displays. It is only a matter of time until Obama's popularity hits 43% and a statue of him is put up. As his popularity drifts lower, displays of power and worship will become more prominent.

Democrats need to be defeated in 2010 and 2012. Bush might not have been the smartest President, and you may disagree with some of his policy decisions, but at least he did not try to change America into a thug-ruled dictatorship.

Michael Hendrix in CIPE:

A new generation of authoritarians is creating “decorative democracies,” where pre-determined elections allow the state to co-opt the legitimacy of liberty without the substance to support it. At the grassroots, democracy holds little meaning. People are told that they are living in a democracy, but everything around them belies the trappings of fairness and liberty. This result is often achieved by touting economic success, as well as belittling civic institutions and the disaggregated nature of democracy...The greatest response to decorative democracy lies in nurturing local civil societies from the ground up, laying the foundation for institutions responsive to the voice of reform. CIPE helps local private sector organizations across the globe to institutionalize the democratic process – supporting the very characteristics that set true democracies apart from the merely decorative ones...[continue reading]

According to CNN Money, the U.S. government began a record weekly sale of $200 billion in Treasury debt this week. You can read the article here to get the details on what sorts of debt is sold, but I think the key line is here:

While analysts expect this week's auctions to go well, there is concern that the growing supply of Treasurys could eventually overwhelm demand as the United States continues to offer massive amounts of debt each month. (Although) demand from overseas buyers has remained healthy.

Christopher Frey writes about the commercialization of global Christianity in Africa Files:

“Are you writing your prayer request?” I looked up from my scribbling to take in the pretty, grinning young woman in camouflage trucker hat, reflective sunglasses, rolled-up jeans, and canvas trainers. Most everyone around her was either writing on scraps of paper, or, having already done so, was now standing in place, arms pitched heavenward, hips swaying, shuddering to a junior pastor who stamped the concrete and shouted, “Die! Die! Die, demons!” Some of the congregants jitterbugged vigorously, as though trying to shake off a shroud of dust. A few stood solemn, waiting for a breeze to lift them. “No, I’m just taking some notes,” I told the woman. “Well, please enjoy the service. May I have a piece of paper?”...[continue reading]

Whenever you get a lot of Republicans together in one room, the topic inevitably turns to the future of the Republican Party and attempts to rebrand it. One such attempt is the National Council for a New America (NCNA), which is the brainchild of top Republicans like Eric Cantor and John Boehner. This new group has gotten heavyweights like Palin, Jindhal, McCain, Romney, and Jeb Bush to sign on to it, and will attempt to duplicate the success of The Contract with America.

This forum will focus on engaging Americans around the country in a series of policy debates in an attempt to develop ideas and proposals that the Republican Party can run with in the next election, or to get people around the nation behind policy proposals that they have already developed (not sure which). The NCNA will bring together citizens from across the country to begin a dialogue with the American people through a series of forums, town halls, and an online effort that will engage people in discussion- a Republican attempt to 'start the conversation'.

Here are some of the topics that this group with focus on: "Economy: Real Solutions for Economic Recovery," "Healthcare: Building a 21st Century, Patient-Centered System," "Education: Preparing Our Children to Succeed," "Energy: Solutions for Energy Independence," and "National Security: Defending American Liberty and Freedom."

Efforts like these are important, and I think can be a good part of helping Republicans win more elections. Together with the Tea Parties, which get citizens out and active, the NCNA will get Republicans together to talk about policy and government, and that is always a good thing. I've contacted Cantor's office already and offered to help set up a policy discussion here in my area- you should go ahead and do that too.

If you're interested in this group, read about it here, here, and here.

I thought that DC was in the middle of a budget deficit. Isn't this the rationale for DC mayor Adrian Fenty's cutting funds for the independent evaluation of DC public schools as well as city services to vulnerable residents? Someone please tell me where are the funds coming from to publicly fund LEA's for new teacher hires and highly qualified veteran teachers to transfer schools ? Is this money being funded by the stimulus money ?

According to a June 23 article on the WTOP website , "Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi's revised revenue projections, Washington faces a $190 million deficit in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, and a $150 million shortfall in the 2010 budget proposal approved by the Council in May. " That's a total of 340 million dollars.

You tell me what's wrong with this picture. Post here on The Washington Teacher

Subsequent to writing this piece, I wrote Jesse Rauch, Legislative Analyst for the DC City Council. Here's what he said about the source of the funds :

"Terese, my colleague in the Committee of the Whole, says that those are Title II funds coming from the Feds. I CC’d her if you have additional questions on those OSSE grants. Thanks Candi. "

Jesse B Rauch
Senior Legislative Analyst
Committee of the Whole
Council of the District of Columbia
1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Room 410
Washington, DC 20004

OSSE link: http://newsroom.dc.gov/show.aspx/agency/seo/section/2/release/17666

OSSE Announces Funds for New Teacher Signing and Transfer Bonuses ( 7/21/09)

"The DC Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) is pleased to announce to all public LEAs the availability of funds for highly qualified new hires and highly qualified veterans that transfer to schools with low numbers of highly qualified teachers and/or schools in NCLB corrective action status. Teachers in the following subject areas may be granted a $3,000 signing or transfer bonus:

Mathematics
English/Language Arts/Reading
Science
Art
Social Studies

For more information on taking advantage of the Highly Qualified New/Transfer Teacher funds, please have your LEA representative contact Valida Walker, Title II-A Coordinator in the Office of Educator Licensure and Quality at valida.walker@dc.gov or hqt.help@dc.gov "

Posted by The Washington Teacher, information courtesy of OSSE website, quote courtesy of WTOP.com

Here is an update as posted from the DC Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) website. Sorry but you will have to wait. No AYP Scores for DCPS until August 5 ! Until then, I guess we will have to rely on our anonymous source who has been posting DC public schools scores here on The Washington Teacher. See the comment section under the July 22 post titled: Rhee's Model School Shaw TKO'd By Non-Contender Sousa : Is It True ?

JULY 28 UPDATE: OSSE will be releasing final & public data from the 2009 DC CAS on Wednesday August 5. Originally, preliminary data without AYP determinations was to be released today and final data on August 12. Over the next 8 days, OSSE will be reviewing appeals and petitions from schools and LEAs. Please check back on August 5 to view all final achievement data by school and AYP determinations for 2009.

OSSE website: http://nclb.osse.dc.gov/index.asp

Posted by The Washington Teacher

Lord Aikins Adusei in Wikileaks:

However, of all the victims of Swiss banking secrecy laws and her shady banking practices, developing countries and Africa in particular seem to have suffered the most. The global infrastructure of international financial secrecy with headquarters in Switzerland has helped bleed trillions of dollars in illicitly generated money out of Africa and the rest of the developing world. The activities of Swiss banking institutions and real estate companies have plunged third world nations into debts, poverty, misery, malnutrition, diseases, economic meltdown, infrastructure decay and political instabilities through the help they give to corrupt politicians, civil servants, the business elite and corrupt multinational corporations who collude and connive with the corrupt entities to loot and hide the proceeds of their ill-gotton gains.

Although Barack Obama throws a baseball like a girl (video here), he plays hardball with the best of them, using tactics he learned from his years in inner city Chicago. Via Hot Air Blog there is a story about how Arizona Senator Jon Kyl suggested that not only should Congress refuse to consider a second stimulus package, they should bring the current spending to a halt before it wastes even more money. Rather than make a reasoned argument for their stimulus package, however, the White House threatened to choke Arizona’s federal funds in retaliation.

A day (after Kyl's suggestion), Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer received letters from Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar all pointing out the billions headed to Arizona.

Kyl “publicly questioned whether the stimulus is working and stated that he wants to cancel projects that aren’t presently underway,” LaHood wrote to Brewer. “I believe the stimulus has been very effective in creating job opportunities throughout the country. However, if you prefer to forfeit the money we are making available to your state, as Senator Kyl suggests, please let me know.”

Also, I’m not sure if anyone at the White House realizes this quite yet, but all of that money comes from Arizona in the first place — and taxpayers all over the nation. They’re not promising some vast new wealth; they’re promising to return our money back to ourselves, with a hefty chunk of it removed to pay for the bureaucrats that manage it.

Moeletsi Mbeki author of the recently published Architects of Poverty discusses the flawed capitalism practiced in the continent.Regarding the elite:

They have no capital like a typical bourgeoisie. They don't create wealth; they are a parasitic elite that lives off the existing assets which they didn't create.It is the same with the BEE tycoons in South Africa. They are living off the assets handed to them by existing companies. They are not a bourgeoisie; yes, they are wealthy but they are not capitalists.

Here in Michigan, the next big race is for Governor, and although I'm still debating between Hoekstra and Cox myself, one guy who I wish would take me off his mailing list is Republican Rick Snyder.

Snyder describes himself as a moderate Republican. 'Moderate' means that he supports using human embryos to create stem cells for medical research, he promotes gay marriage, and that he supports race and gender preferences, and (source: Free Press article). His ideas about government- 'sweeping government reform,' 'cultural transformation,' no concrete ideas- sound a lot like the inexperienced 'hope' and 'change' junk that is destroying our national government.

Snyder is a supporter of the moderate-wing of the Republican party- a quick search on http://www.opensecrets.org/ (type in Snyder, Michigan, Ann Arbor, search all cycles) shows that Snyder supports guys like Joe Schwarz (knocked out in primary of '06 for being too liberal), Elizabeth Dole, and John McCain, and that he likes to give money to a PAC called "Its My Party Too PAC" (which supports socially progressive moderate candidates). Most of his donations at least have been to Republicans, although he has given Democrat John Dingell 3K.

To be fair, when I started writing this piece I had it titled "Blasting Rick Snyder" and was going to really tear into the guy, mostly based on some stuff I read at Michigan Taxes Too Much. But then I did a little research and moderated my view somewhat.

Snyder is inexperienced, and we know from our experience with Granholm and Obama that putting a novice in charge of the state does not work well. Snyder is a socially 'moderate', which means that he feels that the 'life' portion of 'life, liberty, and property' is optional- as if you can pick and choose what are natural rights given to us by God. Snyder's support for gay marriage and racial preferences also demonstrate that he is not in tune with voters on the issues, and I'm getting sick of politicians who talk about moderation but on the issues are liberal.

What Michigan needs is someone running our state who is experienced and does a good job with public policy- that means a much maligned 'insider' politician. We need someone who espouses conservative principles- the type of ideas and policies that led Michigan to success under Engler and the opposite of those ideas and policies that led Michigan to failure under Granholm. Finally, we need someone who is in step with voters on issues- not someone who glibly speaks of hope and change, but someone who can move our state in the right direction. And that person is not Rick Snyder.

UPDATE: Although I did not support Snyder in the primary and feel he is not a solid conservative Republican, he will make a considerably better Governor than Granholm and a way way way better Governor than the communist angry special-interest controlled Virg 'Job Killer' Bernero. So, consider everything I have said in the correct light- as bad as Rick is, Virg is a thousand times worse.

We Need Your Story @ dcstories@gmail.com !

A delightful display of art amidst adversity the Kinshasa Symphony Orchestra:

Our country will regret for decades taking a flyer on an inexperienced politician from Chicago, but we can still recover, provided that his party is sounded rejected in the midterm elections and we move on as fast as we can from the Obamaccident of 2008. The good thing is, this is looking more and more like a possibility.

On Monday, Scott Rasmussen reported that in a telephone survey of likely voters that Republican Mitt Romney is now running even with Democrat Barack Obama, 45-45.

After only a few short months, voters have begun to sour on the hope-and-promises rhetoric of Obama, and are starting to see that behind all the promises of bipartisanship and change his actual conduct as president is very partisan and the ideas he advances are old-school liberalism. Jimmy Carter was blasted in 1980 by a runner-up former Governor, and Obama deserves to be blasted in 2012 by a runner-up former Governor named Romney.

In the Economist:

...for all the alterations in personnel and the changes in rhetoric when a new party or a new faction of the old party takes power, many core elements of governance seem to remain the same. In particular, Africa's new political elites, regardless of professed ideological orientation, have in the main continued down the same rent-seeking paths as their predecessors.

As early as March 2009, there were record numbers of prospective teachers who had not even finished their bachelor degrees but were hired anyway by some DC principals for teaching positions. These interviews were conducted via telephone in many instances. Unfortunately, DC teachers were not given the same opportunity to interview for these positions because interviews were conducted on the DL (down low) before job fairs were even held or vacancy positions had been announced. I have posted the email below just to give you a glimpse of what's still going on in DCPS with deceptive hiring practices. This doesn't sound like the transparency we were promised under the Fenty administration. Many questions that need to be answered are posed in this email from a DC insider:

Dear Candi:

"It appears that principals are still interviewing new teachers for vacant positions. Friendship personnel has been in Anacostia SHS interviewing new teachers behind locked doors. This was happening as late as yesterday.

Also, under the new Friendship program, Anacostia SHS will have 4 principals including two new principals and an Assistant Principal who was once demoted from a principal position. They are still seeking a fourth principal. Check out the school profiles listed on the DCPS website. In addition, four deans of students who will not only work with students but will work with teachers in the classroom providing instructional support. This is a new approach for deans. What are their qualifications? Where is the WTU? What happened to the July 15 cutoff date ? Rhee and her partners cannot be trusted to keep their word. Many people are waiting to be placed and yet, principals are still interviewing new teachers. " Signed DC insider

Posted by The Washington Teacher

In Africa Files Elinami Veraeli Swai & Maurice N. Amutabi write about the East African equivalents of 'Cash Madams' & 'Mama Benz':

In Nairobi, Kenya, these women operate from Eastleigh’s Garissa Lodge (named after the popular lodging and eating house from which they initially operated), Sarit Centre, Village Market near Gigiri and Westlands shopping center. Over the years, their activities have spread to other leading urban centers in Kenya. In Dar-Es-Salaam, Tanzania, these women operate at Namanga and Kariakoo market centers. Spurred by trade liberalism, these women travelled extensively to places such as Dubai, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan and South Africa from where they got their merchandize. Because most of their merchandise came from Dubai, they came to be known as "Dubai women". The name has lingered on, even after Dubai has ceased to be the principal source of their commodities.

My wife, our my three kids, and I are vacationing this week in Washington DC, and as I walked around town taking pictures, random thoughts popped into my head. Here are some of them:

• Ray LaHood is not a very impressive guy. LaHood is currently the Secretary of Transportation, and he has the distinction of being a Republican in Obama's cabinet and a former teacher. His evaluation of Obama sounds like he has been drinking the coolaid over at the White House- he said Obama was bipartisan, open-minded, willing to listen to anyone, etc, and I don't see that at all. About the only right thing LaHood said was when I asked him whether it was tougher being a teacher or a cabinet member, and he said it was tougher being a teacher- I agree with him on that. I mean, how hard is it just to throw a billion dollars at something, and that's how the Obama White House runs.
• Washington DC is booming. I think it is one of the few states in the nation to actually have increasingly employment, job growth, and GDP growth. There are signs everywhere of prosperity and building- roads are being repaired, monuments are being revamped, buildings are adding on, and fresh paint and plaster is in abundance. On a guidebook of DC I read that our capitol was designed to look like the capitols of the Emperors and despots of Europe, but it was okay because we lived in a free nation that celebrated liberty and property. Well, as our country becomes more despotic and tyrannical, it is going to look increasingly like those capitols of the old days, when the Emperor took money from the countryside to build himself new statues and bigger palaces.
• My camera filled up, so I wasn't able to get a picture of this, but when my wife and I walked to see the White House, we saw a rainbow. It was kind of sunny but raining, and the rainbow was gorgeous. It began at the Washington Monument, soared into the sky, and set on the Ronald Reagan building. I wasn't going to read anything into that, except that after we saw the White House and walked away from it, we turned and looked back, and the rainbow was gone, but you could see the Washington Monument behind the White House, and the water coming off the top if it had darkened the tip, and it looked like the Monument was crying. I thought to myself- 'what would George Washington think about the guy currently occupying the White House?' There is no way of knowing, but I think I could guess that he would not think favorably of Obama.
• In the Rotunda of the National Archives, next to the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and Declaration of Independence, there is a display set up on how our American freedom documents have inspired other nations around the world. On it, there is this line from George Washington's inaugural address:

  "the preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government are justly considered, perhaps, as deeply, as finally, staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people"

  This line makes me wonder if the sacred fire of liberty is still burning. Have we lost it- in a short-sighted grab for the comforts of tyranny have we extinguished it? And what happens if America turns it back on liberty, property, and life? Will it begin to fade in the world? Have we as humans blown our one and best chance at truly building a free republic based on natural rights and core principles?
• Last thought of the day, and it comes after reading Lincoln's second inaugural address at the Lincoln Memorial (Incidentally, whatever happened to great inaugural addresses? Can you recite or remember a single thing from Obama's 'historic' one?). I'm not going to rewrite it or copy it here, although short, you've read enough today. Read it sometime here. There were two messages that I took from it. First, it was the sense of being right- Lincoln knew that the North was right, and that is why it was victorious. We are right on Iraq, Afghanistan, and many other issues, and there is no need to apologize for it- they pray to their gods, we pray to ours, and we emerge victorious- in his infinite wisdom, God knows what he is doing. The other thing that I took from Lincoln's address was the willingness to pay the price. The Civil War was terrible, but if that is what it took to right the wrongs of slavery, so be it. In our society, we are not willing to pay a price for anything- we want everything free and given to us. The financial industry paid the price for bad loans and risky practices- and we bailed them out. The auto companies paid the price for building bad cars- and we bailed the out. Many people pay the price for not getting health insurance- and now we want to bail them out. There is a price for everything, and we need to be able to pay that price again.

At dinner at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Washington DC tonight I ran into Representative Todd Platts, Republican Congressman from Pennsylvania's 19th district. We had an enjoyable conversation, and I walked away from my meeting with him feeling that he is a genuinely good Congressmen who cares about his district.

The main thing that we talked about was healthcare. Congressman Platts serves on the Education and Labor Committee, which is the main committee that is dealing with the healthcare legislation. He said that he got the healthcare bill, which was over 1000 pages in length, and then had two days to look it over before it was passed out of committee. Amendments were only allowed to be discussed under very narrow rules, and he felt that the end result was a healthcare bill that was flawed in every possible way.

The Republicans do have real ideas on how to lower healthcare costs and expand access- Congressman Platts talked about not having the government tax small business owners or individuals health care premiums, about letting people from all over the nation pool together to get healthcare, about having healthcare providers and insurance agencies compete across state lines, and several other even more technical policies that would reduce cost and expand coverage.

According to Congressman Platts, the Democrats refused to hear any of these ideas and are fixed on one goal- making the United States government the sole provider for healthcare in our nation. Oh, the Democrats might pretend like this is not their goal, but when you begin to talk about the logical conclusions to their proposals, they shut their minds and ears and quit listening- they know what they are doing, they know what they are doing is disingenuous, they know what they are doing is wrong, but they don't care, they are not going to let a crisis go to waste. Now is the time to remake America, before voters wake up and realize what they have done, and they know it.

Congressman Platts is a good guy, and will work hard to slow down or at least inform the American public about this healthcare bill, but the only chance it has of not passing is if you contact your Congressman and put public pressure on them. He can't do it alone. I also encourage you to support Congressman Platts for re-election in 2010- we need more guys like him in government.

The roll-call of incompetence continues, Okey Ndibe in 234Next on Nigeria's legislators:

A week ago, two reporters at this newspaper, Idris Akinbajo and Elor Nkereuwem, wrote an investigative report that unmasked Nigeria’s current crop of senators for the mediocrities they are. The report, simply captioned “The Senate’s scorecard,” revealed that the Senate had passed only 15 bills in more than two years. This paltry output represents what the reporters aptly described as “a miserable five percent” of the 284 Bills that came before the legislative body. I don’t care what your line of work is: any employee who completes a mere five percent of his or her assigned tasks is a failure. Such an employee would be an eminent candidate for rustication. Not, however, if you happen to be a Nigerian senator. In the perverted logic of the Senate, five percent performance is a mark of distinction!

When government runs healthcare, politics starts intruding in and good healthcare starts going out. According to the Times Online, the British department in charge of healthcare, the National Health Service, recently published a pamphlet that it then distributed to schools around the nation. This government-issued document informs students that they have a right to an enjoyable sex life, and that regular intercourse can be good for their cardiovascular health.

These are the sort of arguments that I might make in my own household, but they are not the sort of views that I think should be ordered by the government. It is kind of creepy to think that once Big Brother nationalizes our healthcare system, some bureaucrat will write a booklet similar to this one, in which young children are informed about the benefits of sexual pleasure.

According to the government, society has been stupidly pretending that there is a need for safe sex and that you should be in a loving committed relationship prior to having sex- the government bureaucrat who ordered this document sent to all schools feels that the main reason for sex is mindless enjoyment, and if more kids are brainwashed that way, this pervert might get lucky more often.

Not to sugarcoat it, in my mind, this government employee is either a dirty old man who likes to hit on younger girls or some sort of new-age feminist who is lacking in real happiness.

The document is called Pleasure, and has a nice slogan in it- “an orgasm a day keeps the doctor away” it says. Then it goes on to ask "what about sex or masturbation twice a week?”, suggesting that this type of physical activity is healthy. Let me stress yet again that this is a government bureaucracy, the one that runs the healthcare system, doing this, in England.

This is not too far off here in America if Obama and the liberals running our nation have their way.

Here is some news that you won't read anywhere else.

RNC Chairmen Michael Steele met today with a group of Republican teachers at an event hosted by the National Education Association, the largest union in the country. It was perhaps the first time in recent memory that the head of the Republican party met with teachers at the NEA headquarters.

"You are all Republicans?" he asked when he got to the podium. After a loud happy chorus of "yes!" he asked "And you are in the NEA?" The crowd yelled "yes" again, as everyone at this particular NEA gathering was in fact a Republican teacher. "That's freaken awesome!" Steele said in delight.

The Republican National Committee (RNC) is not opposed to teachers- Steele wanted us to all be aware that the RNC and the Republican party is never opposed to teachers, in spite of how they might view or talk about the teachers union. "The RNC would like to thank all you teachers for what you do," he said.

The first thing he talked about was how he viewed healthcare, and he tried to relate it back to teachers. He suggested that our nation not "lurch blindly into healthcare," referring to the speed and secrecy which the Democrat's healthcare bill may be introduced. The most important thing he said though about this issue was that we need to view healthcare through the lens of the patient-doctor relationship, and not to make it a patient-bureaucrat relationship. This healthcare debate, he said, is about choice or orders, the individual or government, cost not access, and we need to keep those thoughts in mind.

Speaking to Republican teachers, Chairmen Steele focused most of his comments on education. He "had the privilage to teach," he said, refering to his time teaching history and economics, and he knew that teachers have "the hardest job in the world." When he was Lt. Governor, he said that he "wanted to get into the classrooms and see what was really going on- and not deal with bureaucrats, or unions, or politicians, but instead deal with the teacher/student relationship." He got into the classrooms and talked with thousands of teachers, and this gave him an insight into how to improve the education system.

But when he sat down with the NEA, it became "all personalities and politics, and not issues and problems." Steele talked about how the NEA and the Republican party need to work together to build bridges and find consensus on issues, and move towards making progress on improving our educational system.

Steele several times looked around in surprise at being at the NEA building, which is usually not friendly to Republicans, but about 30% of the NEA is Republican, and they are becoming more organized and active in their union.

Speaking from his position as head of the RNC, he said that what we need to do as a country is put in place more policies that let teachers do their jobs and let them be the great teachers that they are, and those are the sort of ideas that the NEA and the Republican party should both be embracing.

She's Got Game !
"Gaming the System means, simply, using the rules, policies and procedures of a system against itself for purposes outside what these rules were intended for. Most of the time, a set of rules will be put in place towards a simple goal. People who study the rules closely can then use this massive (often contradictory) ruleset to play the "game" their own, unexpected way."


On paper, DCPS has showed gains in improving its standardized test scores. But WaPo staff writer Bill Turque's article on July 17 as well as a July 20 WaPo letter to the editor by James Crawford support that Chancellor Michell Rhee is manipulating statistics to make DC Schools appear better than they really are. A review of the literature reveals that it isn't uncommon practice for jurisdictions to game the system under NCLB by finding loopholes in the 2002 law that measures annual progress of all students' reading and math at grade level by the year 2014.

A few of the common tactics used to game the system include:

1. limiting the number of test scores used to chart progress in closing the achievement gap between minority and white students. The higher a jurisdiction sets a subgroup size, the more groups such as disabled students and other subgroups are excluded. For instance setting a group to a size of 40 may exclude disabled students if the school does not have a population of of 40 disabled students.

2. Another commonly used tactic is using the performance index which gives jurisdictions half the credit for students who aren't proficient. This tactic makes it easier for local jurisdictions to make annual progress. In 2005-06, the state of Alabama used this tactic. Since they had up to 85% of their students at the basic level, almost half of their students were counted as proficient using this tactic even though they weren't proficient.

Both the recent Bill Turque article and the Crawford letter (listed below) both underscore the need for an independent evaluation of Chancellor Rhee's reform. This independent evaluation would provide us with an objective overall measure of progress that looks at a many variables other than just DC-CAS score which can be manipulated. Some of the other variables that would probably be considered include high school graduation rate , National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) a test taken by a cross-section of students in each jurisdiction as well as a number of other critical factors. The editorial titled Education Chicanery in the District by James Crawford from the Institute on Language and Education Policy delves into what Crawford characterizes as deceptive testing tactics by the Rhee administration that provides misleading results. Here it is in its entirety:

Educational Chicanery in the District

"Bill Turque provided some valuable insights into the manipulation of student test scores for political advantage ["Testing Tactics Helped Fuel D.C. School Gains," Metro, July 17]. Removing low scorers from the testing pool is an effortless way to raise average scores and create the illusion of progress for D.C. schools. But it prevents any fair comparison with test results from prior years.

Intensive teaching to the test, especially for students on the cusp of "proficiency," is even more pernicious. It destroys the validity of academic assessments, which are designed to sample a broad range of skills and knowledge. Narrowing instruction to items expected to be on the test is like holding a match under the thermostat. It produces misleading results, not to mention an impoverished curriculum.

Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee have taken credit for what they call "steady gains" by students. But pumping up test scores by artificial means tells us nothing about whether children are learning. It's too bad The Post relied on a euphemism -- "improved statistical housekeeping" -- to characterize these deceptive tactics. A more accurate description would be "gaming the system."

JAMES CRAWFORD
President
Institute for Language and Education Policy
Washington

Posted by The Washington Teacher

editorial courtesy of WaPo, definition courtesy of wiktruth

"...Eden Campus is a tertiary education facility which has been established to provide low cost education and business skills to previously marginalized South Africans in the region, with a view to replicating the campus at other locations throughout southern Africa...",Watch related video here.

SOUSA BEATS SHAW

MasterResource has the best title for a post I have seen in a long time, and I'm reusing it, because it makes you laugh, and then you read the post and you cry. You laugh because it is funny, and you cry because it really is happening. Here is the post:

Alarmingly, the prophet that Gore most resembles may turn out to be Nongqawuse, who led her people to ruin in the mid-19th century. Nongqawuse was a teenager and a member of the Xhosa tribe in South Africa. One day in April or May of 1856, she went down to the river to fetch water. When she returned, she said that she had encountered the spirits of three of her ancestors who told her that her people must destroy their crops and kill their cattle. In return, the sun would rise red on February 18, 1857, and the Xhosa ancestors would sweep the British settlers from the land and bring them fresh, healthier cattle. (Some of the Xhosa cattle had been suffering from a lung ailment, which may or may not have been brought by the British settlers’ cattle.)

Astonishingly, the Xhosa chieftain, Sarhili, agreed to do exactly as this young girl urged. Over the next year, a frenzy occurred in which it is estimated that between 300,000 and 400,000 cattle were killed and crops destroyed. Historians sometimes call it the “Great Cattle Killing.”

But on February 18, 1857, the sun rose as usual. It was not red. And the Xhosa ancestors did not show. But the Xhosa people had destroyed their livelihood. In the resulting famine, the population of the area dropped from 105,000 to less than 27,000. Cannibalism was reported. Following Nongqawuse’s advice was a calamity of staggering proportions for the Xhosa people.

Like Nongqawuse, Gore tells us that the sun will soon rise red over the land. Well, maybe. But already the models that he relies on have been proven wrong. The intense period of warming that these models predicted over the past ten years never came to pass. Yet we are repeatedly told that it’s still coming and that it’s just a little late. Apparently, we should pay no attention to the fact that the polar ice is expanding again. Instead, we must put the brakes on our use of energy–the very thing that makes the modern world possible–to avoid antagonizing the spirits of our ancestors, I mean to avoid climate disaster.

Again, I am persuadable. But it will take more evidence than I have seen so far (and yes, I’ve spent more time than the average lawyer trying to piece together the evidence, though that’s not saying much).

There are two more parallels to the Great Cattle Killing that are worth pointing out. First, Nongqawuse’s urgings did not come out of nowhere. Some of the cattle were indeed sick. The problem is that her proposed course of action was utterly disproportionate to the problem, just as Gore’s proposals are disproportionate given the state of our knowledge. Second, some historians believe that the Great Cattle Killing was in part motivated by class animosity. The Xhosa people had been losing ground to white settlers for years, and some members of the tribe blamed their more prosperous members. Cattle were a status symbols, and initially at least, the burden of their destruction seemed to be something that would fall disproportionately upon these tribal leaders. The cattle were, in effect, the SUVs of their time.

In the latest saga of DC schools- here comes Mayor Adrian Fenty's latest dastardly deed. Fenty has eliminated funding for an independent evaluator assigned to assess the progress of school reform under Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee. Are you surprised ? Well I'm not. Isn't this typical of life under Fenty ? So it seems that General Greenhorn (AKA Adrian Fenty) is afraid of a little accountability. Well afterall accounability is reserved only for us peons (i.e. teachers, principals, vice principals & central office workers). Right ?

General Greenhorn is the title bestowed upon Adrian Fenty by certain journalists early on in his mayoral career.

My email is all ablaze this morning about what should we do next in this latest 'mayhem madness' we call DCPS. You tell me ! Here's the story in its entirety as reported by Wash. Post Staff Writer, Bill Turque and might I add buried back on page B 4.

Latest Fenty Budget Cuts Funds for Schools Evaluation

"Mayor Adrian M. Fenty has eliminated funding for an independent evaluator assigned to assess the progress of public school reform under Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee, according to the revised 2010 budget he submitted to the D.C. Council late Friday.

Fenty (D) also reversed a series of other budget measures, approved by the council in May, that sought to divert some of the mayor's control of education to other agencies. They include the shift of staff and funds from Deputy Mayor for Education Victor Reinoso to the D.C. State Board of Education, which would be established as an independent agency. The board would house the office of the ombudsman for public education, which is responsible for investigating complaints and answering questions from parents.

The proposed moves reflect the council's discontent with what some members see as a lack of transparency and accountability in the mayor's efforts to transform the District's struggling public school system. The ombudsman's office, for example, is supposed to file monthly reports but has not done so since March. The ombudsman, Tonya Vidal Kinlow, resigned in December and has yet to be permanently replaced.

Chairman Vincent C. Gray (D) and the council are free to restore the funding cut when they vote on the revised budget July 31. But speaking to the council Monday at a hearing on Fenty's plan to close a two-year, $666 million revenue shortfall, city administrator Neil Albert urged that the governance structure established in 2007 remain intact.

"Our education reform efforts are demonstrating real results," Albert said, "and we strongly believe that, rather than changing course with the established structure, we should maintain momentum forward." Albert did not directly address the school evaluation, which Fenty is required to submit annually under the law that established mayoral control. He also has the option to skip the yearly reports and deliver a five-year independent assessment by September 2012.

In May 2008, Reinoso recommended two prominent education scholars for the project, Frederick Hess of the American Enterprise Institute and Kenneth Wong of Brown University. But the plan stalled when Gray raised questions about their independence. Hess wrote an op-ed piece for The Washington Post in 2007 praising Rhee. Wong testified in favor of the mayoral takeover.

When Reinoso didn't offer other candidates, Gray decided to move on his own. This past May, he included $325,000 to hire the National Research Council, one of four nonprofit organizations that operate under the National Academies umbrella, to conduct the evaluation. The money would cover about 20 percent of the total cost, with the NRC raising the rest from private sources. Fenty spokeswoman Mafara Hobson said Monday that the mayor was still committed to an independent evaluation but did not elaborate.

The council also has attempted to bolster the power of the state board, which does not run school operations but formulates standards for academic programs and teacher qualifications and oversees the school system's standardized tests. Although state board members are elected, the panel is under the control of the state superintendent, who reports to Reinoso.

"We don't believe a set of elected officials should report to a set of appointed officials," Gray said Monday. When Fenty's original budget cut the board's $1 million in funding in half this spring, the council restored the money and added money for two staff members who would answer directly to the panel. D.C. State Board President Lisa Raymond said the group is simply trying to do its job. "We understand this is a very tough time for the entire city, and if we have to reduce our budget to help the city, we are willing to do that," she said. "Cutting it in half is not acceptable. It wasn't acceptable three months ago, and it's not acceptable now."

Posted by The Washington Teacher, story courtesy of The WaPo

In Pambazuka Kola Ibrahim and Ayo Ademiluyi offer solutions for fighting cults in Nigerian Universities:

What is needed to tame the monster of cultism across the campuses is to build a genuine mass based student movement that will be a counterweight to cultism. In this regard, the ban and proscription of student unions on many campuses is a deliberate attempt by the authorities of the tertiary institutions to give a free hand to cult groups which are controlled by them to strafe off genuine student activists. This is why campaign against attack on democratic student unionism must be championed by students across campuses...[continue reading]

Khadija Sharife in FPIF writes:

The portrayal of Africa's strong-arm leaders as lone rangers obscures the system underpinning the dictatorships and delinks dictators from their primary source of sustenance. The rhetoric of French-controlled development endorsed by Bongo is a subset of France's postcolonial Africa policy — Françafrique — designed to create structural dependence and domination by reasserting geostrategic control over natural resources through the use of black "governors." The pulse of the Françafrique ideology — fric is slang for cash — is rooted in shadow economies sustaining respectable corporations, various intersecting shadow networks, secret services, private lobbies, and political and diplomatic relationships between the official and unofficial political elite. These forces are individually and collectively able to mobilize substantial economic, political, and military support.

Here's to you Dr. Elliott & Luke C. Moore students, parents and staff !

Excerpts from an AllAfrica interview with Barack Obama:

...you're not going to get investment without good governance. So that's part of the reason why we emphasize it. Again, this is a very practical, hard-headed approach to how we're going to see improvements in the daily lives of the peoples of Africa. If government officials are asking for 10, 15, 25 percent off the top, businesses don't want to invest there.

I think part of what's hampered advancement in Africa is that for many years we've made excuses about corruption or poor governance; that this was somehow the consequence of neo-colonialism, or the West has been oppressive, or racism. I'm not a believer in excuses.

From the NFS website:

Nigerian Field Society (NFS) is a national organization founded in 1930 with Branches in several cities across the country. There have been active Branches in as many as 20 cities over the years bu, as the NFS is entirely a voluntary organization.The Mission of the NFS is:

• To encourage interest in and knowledge of the fauna, flora, history, legends and customs, arts and crafts, sciences, sports and pastimes of West Africa in general and Nigeria in particular;

• To support their conservation;

• To co-operate with organizations with similar interests

There are certain ideas, certain beliefs, that should be the basis of every political conversation that you have, that mark your every political speech. These ideas came to us from our ancestors, who fought the most powerful nation in the world and through the grace of God won, winning more land, richer land, than any nation has ever won before or since. And it was the generations before us who toiled on this land, expanding it, enriching it, all while following the ideas of our founders.

We must never forget that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by God with rights which can not be taken away, and that some of these rights- the most important ones perhaps- are the right to live, the right to live in freedom, and the right to keep and own property.

These rights existed before government, and government has no moral claim on them- only a tyrannical government can ask you to kill your unborn baby or not seek medical care when you are old, only a despotic government will take away your personal responsibility and ability to make choices, and only a bad government will pretend that it is entitled to your property.

It is very important that we remember these things, because if we stray from our founding beliefs, than our prosperity and safety will disappear. As our nation does stray into these bitter times, many our once again remembering how bold, how controversial, how radical our founding fathers were, believing those ideals so enumerated in the Declaration of Independence. It is in our hearts and souls that we know these words were correct when spoken, and we know that government is put among men only to protect life, liberty, and property, and not to provide homes, healthcare, education, welfare, or consumer goods.

Our ancestors established America and gave it to us, so that their descendants could enjoy the dream that they had won. They did not really want us adding or subtracting to the meaning and intent of their dreams- they wanted us to stick closely to the dream, the freedom, the liberty, the protection that they had won with the grace of God.

This is still a great nation, and we can keep in great, but only if we keep the Declaration of Independence in our hearts and speak it often. When in public meetings or when making a public comment, try to work in the words "all men are created equal," or "right to life, liberty, and property," or "government's purpose is to secure these rights". There is no need to re-invent the wheel- there is only the need to re-remember our Founding.

These comments were inspired by The Bible, Deuteronomy 4.